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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26637880">Weekend Lover</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owlship/pseuds/Owlship'>Owlship</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Riding the SkyTrain [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers: Cyberverse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Developing Relationship, F/M, Fuckbuddies, Making stuff up about Skywarp's Teleportation Abilities, Other, Size Difference, Skywarp does the spiking this time, Sticky Sexual Interfacing, Thundercracker has a dog, Touch-Starved</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:28:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,258</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26637880</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owlship/pseuds/Owlship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She's embarrassed at her reaction, and angry for feeling embarrassed. But she hasn't had anyone to preen her since her trine was split up on Megatron's orders, and just the impersonal touch of Astrotrain as he wiped down her wings, the spots in back she can't easily reach on her own, had nearly made her come undone.</p>
<p>It's stupid. He didn't mean anything by it- she'd offer to do the same, if she made a mess like that- but still. Skywarp rubs a hand against her chest, right over where her spark spins and hums in quantum entanglement with her trine, and feels an aching sort of loneliness.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Astrotrain/Skywarp (Transformers), Background Skywarp/Starscream/Thundercracker (Transformers)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Riding the SkyTrain [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926703</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Weekend Lover</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm officially getting carried away with this little verse I have going, even though most of the plotty stuff is still only under the surface. Oops. Takes place immediately after <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26433334">Returning the Echo</a>, and right around episode s3e18 "Enemy Line".</p>
<p>Hopefully it's been obvious that I'm using ::double colons:: to mark comm use, but now I'm also throwing in ⁂<i>asterisms like this</i>⁂ specifically for trine-link communication. It'll barely get used but I just love that punctuation mark, ngl.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her first instinct is to warp straight to her trine, but, well. Thundercracker is still off on that organic planet and Starscream... Starscream won't be any comfort to her now.</p>
<p>Skywarp instead finds herself in her empty habsuite, the one she took when she was appointed Acting Air Commander and planned to rub it in Starscream's faceplate when he showed back up. It's too big for just her, a vast echoing space and a berth sized for an entire trine, grand when she claimed it but currently mocking her.</p>
<p>She's embarrassed at her reaction, and angry for feeling embarrassed. But she hasn't had anyone to preen her since her trine was split up on Megatron's orders, and just the impersonal touch of Astrotrain as he wiped down her wings, the spots in back she can't easily reach on her own, had nearly made her come undone.</p>
<p>It's stupid. He didn't mean anything by it- she'd offer to do the same, if she made a mess like that- but still. Skywarp rubs a hand against her chest, right over where her spark spins and hums in quantum entanglement with her trine, and feels an aching sort of loneliness.</p>
<p>She knows that Thundercracker is too far away for the trine bond to allow for anything like real communication, but she sends a pulse to him anyway. ⁂<em>It's me it's me I miss you come back I miss you</em>⁂</p>
<p>The answer is quick to return, all nuance stripped away so the only thing she feels is the sense of ⁂<em>Thundercracker</em>⁂, the reassurance that he still functions.</p>
<p>It settles something inside of her, enough that she can shake out some of the tension in her struts and grimace at how much cleaning she still has to do.</p>
<p>The hallways are clear between her habsuite and the officer's washracks, but the washroom itself isn't. Swindle is standing under the best spigot, whistling obnoxiously as he soaps his frame.</p>
<p>Skywarp normally likes Swindle okay. Sure, sometimes he rips you off, but <em>sometimes</em> his schemes actually pan out, and then you have a fistful of shanix or a couple astroliters of name-brand Energex to enjoy.</p>
<p>Tonight though, sore and tired and weirdly sad even though she just got fragged but <em>good</em>, she kind of just wants to null ray him until he stops whistling.</p>
<p>Doing her best to ignore him, she gets under her own spout and turns the solvent up as hot as it'll go. Astrotrain did an okay job of wiping her down, but he also jizzed all over her. Like, everywhere. She's never really cared before about where transfluid goes or how much of it there is, but <em>damn</em>. She's impressed.</p>
<p>"Looking a little rough around the edges, Commander?" Swindle's voice is pitched to carry over the pattering solvent. "I've got some excellent topcoats you might be interested in..."</p>
<p>Skywarp looks over at him, not really in the mood for one his pitches. She just wants to get clean enough not to be sticky and then catch some recharge before morning inspections.</p>
<p>But then a thought occurs to her, because Vos might be on the <em>Autobot</em> side of the line Megatron and Optimus Prime drew around the planet, but Swindle has never let things like that stop him from sourcing his goods.</p>
<p>"What do you have for waxes?" she asks, casual as she keeps washing herself, dragging the cloth she's using slowly across her frame. Swindle isn't really motivated by lust, but it never hurts to try.</p>
<p>"For you?" he says, a smirk on his faceplate, purple optics glowing bright with the prospect of making a sale. "I've got nothing but the finest."</p>
<p>Skywarp smiles back at him, mood picking up. They haven't been able to get any in ages but she knows Starscream's favorite brand, of course, the really fancy one they only sell in tiny containers because it's supposed to be savored. Maybe if she can find some to give him as a gift... "Gileon Deep Crystal?"</p>
<p>From the way Swindle's expression glitches, she already knows he doesn't have any on hand. But he's never let that stop himself from making a deal. "That's a rare brand these days," he says, thoughtful, "I know a guy who knows a source, but it won't come cheap."</p>
<p>She shrugs. "Get the wax, then we'll talk price," she says. It's the rule Thundercracker had insisted on after one too many times of Swindle mysteriously 'investing' the cash and never delivering on the goods.</p>
<p>"You wound me, Skywarp," Swindle says, dramatically clutching his chest over his spark.</p>
<p>She knows from experience that if she gives him some money upfront, he's far more likely to just keep it and claim there was a problem further down the line, not his fault, so sorry but no refunds. Even if it's really tempting to give in and pay a little now to secure his interest in finishing the deal.</p>
<p>"Well," she says, and puts more effort into a sigh than is really necessary, "If you don't think you can find it..."</p>
<p>"Now I never said that," Swindle says quickly. "My contact, he doesn't have time for idle inquires. Busy mech, lots of high-value goods, you know how it goes. If I can't tell him I have a serious buyer lined up..."</p>
<p>Skywarp also knows that if she pushes, Swindle will eventually fold. That's Starscream's rule- never go back once you've set the terms (unless it's in your favor, of course). But she's tired, and she <em>did</em> win that bet a couple of cycles ago, leaving her a bit flush with cash. So she un-subspaces a couple of shanix, just enough to get Swindle to put her request on priority.</p>
<p>He takes them gleefully, flashing her a broad smile. "I'll be in touch," he says.</p>
<p>She flicks her ailerons, half sarcastic and half annoyed. If she ends up getting screwed on this deal... "You have my frequency," she says out loud, with more playfulness than she actually has the energy to feel right now.</p>
<p>Swindle looks like he's about to say something else, maybe make another offer, but the door to the washracks opens and a grimy Alpha Strike strides in, ignoring them completely as she stomps towards the nearest spigot.</p>
<p>Swindle just nods to Skywarp instead, shanix tucked out of sight, and leaves her to finish her shower.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She's only in her berth for what feels like an astrocycle, tops, when her comm blares at her. Skywarp groans and tries to dismiss the message, but it won't stop until she's listened to it.</p>
<p>The sender is Soundwave, flagged 'Priority-2' and that is enough to get her to scramble upright before she even opens the message. It's short, just ::Extraction required:: and a data packet with coordinates.</p>
<p>Her processor is still fuzzy, wanting nothing but to sink down into recharge properly. But her duties to the Decepticon cause come first, as always, and she reluctantly drags herself out of the nice, warm, welcoming berth.</p>
<p>When she looks up the unfamiliar coordinates on one of the data pads she has strewn around the berthroom, it's smack dab in the middle of the Autobot side of the planet.</p>
<p>Weird.</p>
<p>But Skywarp shakes her helm because whatever, it doesn't matter. Soundwave outranks her, it's not that big of a deal if he was on some covert mission she didn't know about.</p>
<p>She warps to the coordinates, feeling that heavy laggy strain from overusing her warp drive, and- okay, this? This is why she hates teleporting without knowing where she's going, and why a set of coordinates (especially two-dimensional coordinates, like Soundwave had sent) with nothing else doesn't help as much as other mecha think it does. She's <em>not</em> stuck halfway in a wall (this time) but clearly this is not the right place, a long-deserted corridor where the lights are only now flickering on in response to her presence.</p>
<p>For a split astro' she considers if this is a trap, but then she recognizes the hallway. She's in Iaconus again, one of the Titan's many labyrinthine pathways and dead ends. Soundwave isn't right here, obviously, but she has a pretty good guess of where he <em>meant</em> when he sent those coordinates.</p>
<p>Skywarp recalibrates her internal positioning, then teleports up to the main room of Maccadam's Old (New?) Oil House.</p>
<p>Bingo. There's Soundwave, though he doesn't look like he needs an immediate extraction- his limbs are all intact, no weapons are even drawn. For some reason Dead End is sitting at one of the tables, a resigned expression on his faceplate.</p>
<p>There's an Autobot behind the bar, but just the one. He lifts his helm and oh, it's that weird scientist with the blown optics. Perusal, Persnickety? Something uppity like that, the one who'd bragged about getting them all out of the Quintesson's parade sim.</p>
<p>Skywarp finishes her quick threat-assessment sweep before focusing her optics on Soundwave. No explanation is forthcoming about why he's here, or Dead End, or why they're all on Autobot turf without any signs of a battle.</p>
<p>He gestures for Dead End to get up from the table, and then she's grabbing both their arms and teleporting back to the main base.</p>
<p>Well. She <em>tries</em> to get to the base.</p>
<p>After what feels like a stutter from her warp drive, Skywarp and her passengers rematerialize in a random alley, not even on the same level as the ground so they all kind of stumble-fall. Judging by the lack of graffiti and general cleanliness, she's pretty sure they're still on the Autobot side of the planet.</p>
<p>"This is not a time for pranks," Soundwave says, sounding all sorts of unimpressed. </p>
<p>"It's not!" she's quick to reassure him, and shutters her optics to focus on the next jump. The lag is worse this time, almost bad enough to hurt, like she can actually feel her particles rearranging and zipping through subspace.</p>
<p>They're on the right side of the wall this time, but still not all that close to the base.</p>
<p>"Are you malfunctioning?" Soundwave asks.</p>
<p>Skywarp shakes her head, even though this maybe qualifies. She checks her fuel levels- 36%, plenty enough for a trip like this- and pings her self-diagnostic, not that it ever has anything useful to say.</p>
<p>As predicted, the quick diagnostic comes back all healthy blue and perfectly manageable green. "I didn't get much recharge?" she says, tone lilting hopefully at the end.</p>
<p>Soundwave just looks at her, impassive. She's really, really glad she had that shower even if her paint is still scuffed and marred. "We will continue on wheel," he says after a moment. Dead End grumbles at that, nothing she can pick up distinctly.</p>
<p>Skywarp is torn between relief that she doesn't have to embarrass herself further by failing to properly warp, and utter humiliation that she's failed to properly warp.</p>
<p>Soundwave's staring is practically a laser beam of disappointment. "Return to base for repair."</p>
<p>She doesn't <em>need</em> repair, but Skywarp isn't one to turn down a free out. She nods, transforms, and rockets away leaving Soundwave and Dead End to trundle back along the dirty roads.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Obviously Soundwave's intention was that she'd go to the medbay, and see Hook or that new Velocitron medic. But she already knows that they won't have the first clue of what they're looking at- her warp drive was designed by Starscream, back when they were newly trined and he was still a student. And then all its upgrades since, because Screamer might be prone to fits of random brilliance but he <em>also</em> cuts all the corners he can, were designed and carried out by Shockwave. And Shockwave never shared the specs, even with the medics, because everyone agreed it would really suck for the Autobots to get their grubby servos on it.</p>
<p>Which means that, with Shockwave offline and Starscream... unavailable, Skywarp herself is now the mecha most qualified to poke and prod at the device, since she has the most intimate knowledge of its construction and function.</p>
<p>Besides, she might not be Starscream- screeching if he's so much as lightly dented but avoiding the medics like they're carrying Cosmic Rust when his main energon pump is leaking in a dozen places- but that doesn't mean she's all that eager to submit herself to unnecessary medical attention, either. (Nevermind that she can practically <em>hear</em> Thundercracker's reproach in the back of her processor)</p>
<p>So instead of heading to the repair bay, Skywarp trudges back to her berthroom. She finds a mirror and a detailing brush with a long, thin handle, and clears the junk off her desk so that she can set the mirror up to reflect her chassis at cockpit level.</p>
<p>Her chest plating transforms to peel back in layers, and there in the mirror she can see the mass of the warp drive taking up most of her internal space. It looks undamaged to her, the intricate parts all still where they should be, clean and free of debris or leaking energon.</p>
<p>She pokes with the handle of the brush in a few places, testing for weak spots, for fraying wires. But no, her sensors aren't sending back any errors and she can't see anything from her optical feed either. Even that nasty stab she got a couple of stellar cycles back from a lucky Autobot with an electro-sword is healed up, barely a trace of welding left.</p>
<p>With nothing obviously wrong about the outside of the drive, Skywarp moves the brush to her intake to hold it between her denta and reaches inside her opened chest, feeling for the hidden manual latches. The warp drive cracks open easily, spilling out light from where her spark sits, encased in the machinery.</p>
<p>She ex-vents in relief to see that her spark is still healthy and vibrant, glowing faint purple like always. She's never heard of a true outlier ability suddenly disappearing, but there's always a first time for everything.</p>
<p>Taking the brush back out of her mouth, she's even more cautious as she probes the interior of the warp drive, the thousands of bundled wires and gleaming energon-filled tubes, the thick clusters of circuitry and intricate coils, the countless gears almost too small to be seen.</p>
<p>It all <em>seems</em> to be where it should be.</p>
<p>With nothing immediately presenting itself as a cause for her teleportation problems, Skywarp gladly shuts the warp drive closed, encasing her spark again. She's never quite gotten comfortable seeing herself with her spark exposed, especially not since the casing was modified so extensively; it's one thing to crack herself open in the lead-up to a merge, but another when it's for clinical purposes.</p>
<p>The rest of her plating slides back into place automatically and she shakes off the feeling of vulnerability. As if <em>every</em> mecha doesn't have the same stupidly delicate spark deep in the center of them.</p>
<p>Right, she thinks, there's no damage, which means the lag is just because she hasn't gotten enough recharge. Satisfied with that diagnosis, she doesn't even hesitate to slide back into her berth, exhaustion dropping her into recharge in mere moments.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Skywarp <em>planned</em> to have a quick nap and then get up for morning inspection and the flight maneuvers she had scheduled. Instead she's woken up out a a deep defrag cycle by someone physically pounding on her door, threatening to take it off the track.</p>
<p>She groans and rolls over, processor already offering up a bunch of half-formed excuses to blame it all on Starscream. When she opens her optics and sees the empty berthroom around her, though, she remembers that there isn't a Starscream to blame <em>anything</em> on anymore, and simultaneously feels her spark drop at the same time as her fuel pump leaps to a higher gear because that means <em>she's</em> to blame.</p>
<p>"Open up!" Long Haul shouts through the durasteel door.</p>
<p>She can't figure out why Long Haul is at her door, but Skywarp punches in the unlock code anyway. Long Haul looks pissy, but not murderous. So he probably isn't here because he's run into any surprises she may or may not have left in strategic places around the base.</p>
<p>"Yeah?" she asks, and resets her vocalizer to clear away the thickness of recharge.</p>
<p>"Took you long enough," he says. "Soundwave said to make sure you see Hook."</p>
<p>Skywarp quickly checks her comm- aw, damn. There's an official order waiting for her because Soundwave had <em>not</em> trusted her to see the medic herself, probably guessing she wouldn't.</p>
<p>She doesn't bother to argue with Long Haul, since it never gets her anywhere. "Fine," she says, and locks the door behind her as she steps into the hallway.</p>
<p>Long Haul falls into step alongside her, and she shoots him a glare.</p>
<p>"I don't need to be <em>escorted</em>," she says, wings hiking up defensively.</p>
<p>Long Haul just quirks an optical ridge and keeps dogging her down the halls. Ugh. As if she's going to just run away for something like this, and not save that kind of move for when she <em>really</em> needs it. Not that an escort would actually stop her from warping if she wanted to, anyway.</p>
<p>She flicks her wings in irritation but stays quiet.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Soundwave said your warp drive was malfunctioning?" Hook says, peering down at her. And really, why he's <em>still</em> their main medic is a mystery to her, it's not like he's even much good at it. Hopefully with the ceasefire they can reach neutral populations and recruit some real, trained medics to their side.</p>
<p>Skywarp deliberately does not cross her arms over her chest in defense of herself, even if she instinctively wants to. "It's fine," she says, channeling her best imperious Starscream voice. Without the screechiness.</p>
<p>"Uh-huh," Hook says. "Get on the slab, I'll have a look."</p>
<p>"You don't need to," she replies, "I checked it over myself, it's fine."</p>
<p>"If it's fine, you won't mind me taking a peek," he says.</p>
<p>Now she does cross her arms, like that'll do much good to protect her spark. "You don't even know the schematics," Skywarp says, unafraid to bring out her trump card this early. "You don't have the clearance."</p>
<p>That makes irritation flash over Hook's faceplate, and she smirks at him. Megatron's been kind of busy since Shockwave's demise, so she's pretty sure he never had the time to update her file and allow regular medics access.</p>
<p>"I'm sure I can figure it out," he says tersely.</p>
<p>"I'm the only mecha left with clearance <em>and</em> experience," she says, "And I know it's fine. I'll even prove it!"</p>
<p>Then she warps out of the medbay without waiting for a response, laughing as she lands in the open just outside the main hangar's wide doorway. The lag is gone, her teleportation as smooth and easy as it's meant to be. More proof that she was just suffering a lack of recharge.</p>
<p>Hook won't be happy, and probably he'll complain and then <em>will</em> be granted clearance, but she'll deal with that later.</p>
<p>Skywarp focuses her optics on the open sky above her, expecting to see her seekers up in the air, doing the maneuvers that were scheduled. But the sky is clear, not a single jet in sight, nor even contrails to suggest they were in the area recently.</p>
<p>Hmm.</p>
<p>After a bit of searching, she finds that Thrust had decided, in his infinite wisdom as leader of the second-highest-ranked trine, to dismiss everyone from morning inspection and cancel maneuvers because, and she's quoting him here, "Everyone knows if the Air Commander doesn't show up after fifteen minutes we get to leave."</p>
<p>Skywarp knows that isn't how it works because <em>she's</em> tried that move plenty of times when Starscream was mysteriously held up or plain absent.</p>
<p>Over the intra-seeker channel she sends an order for everyone to assemble in the main hangar, tagging it Priority so they know she's going to be looking for mecha who try to slip out through the cracks. The speed most confirmation pings come back with is kind of an ego boost.</p>
<p>Once assembled in the hangar, she reveals the air force's punishment: scrubbing the transports. By hand.</p>
<p>"What?" Ramjet moans, "But you're the one who over-recharged!"</p>
<p>"I was away on a classified mission," Skywarp says with a touch of smugness, "And your trine certainly knew the orders ahead of time." True, she <em>should</em> have officially told Thrust to run the drills in her place, but like pit is she going to remind them of that fact.</p>
<p>There's grumbling, but really. Starscream would have probably made them dodge his cluster bombs all day to make up for the lapse, until the whole fleet was dropping from the sky in exhaustion or from damage. Compared to that, washing a bunch of grimy transport shuttles is a <em>gift</em>.</p>
<p>Skywarp finds a comfortable spot on a storage crate to watch, mostly to add to the humiliation of Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet as they slop buckets of sudsy solvent around like the grunts they are. All she needs is a cube of energon and one of those silly straws she'd taken a liking to when stationed at the Barlian Spaceport.</p>
<p>One of the newer recruits, a blue-gray seeker barely settled into their mature frame upgrade, ungracefully slips off the roof of the shuttle he's washing. Skywarp snorts out a laugh, then squints her optics to magnify the feed because-</p>
<p>"Oi, lead-wings!" she calls, unable to keep the jeering out of her voice. "That's not a transport!"</p>
<p>The seeker (Cloud-something?) frowns in confusion, soapy sponge dangling from his digits. "Huh?"</p>
<p>Skywarp gets up off the crate she's been lounging on and strides over so she doesn't have to shout across half the hangar. "That's Astrotrain, bolt-brain," she says. "A mech, not a drone."</p>
<p>Right on cue, Astrotrain says in an amused rumble, "I'm not complaining."</p>
<p>Cloud-whatever squawks, and scrambles the rest of the way off Astrotrain's wing.</p>
<p>She twitches her ailerons in exasperation, going so far as to roll her optics to really express herself. "Go wash one of the <em>actual</em> transports," she tells Cloud-whatever, who scurries off quickly.</p>
<p>"Who's going to wash me, then?" Astrotrain says, his voice pitched low and teasing.</p>
<p>"Hmm," Skywarp hums, weighing up her choices. She really hadn't planned on participating in this group punishment, but the opportunity to get her hands all over Astrotrain's plating... She picks up Cloud-whatever's discarded sponge. "Are you dirty enough to need a wash?"</p>
<p>His engines give a low purr, practically a subsonic vibration. "You tell me," he says.</p>
<p>And, really, who is she to resist? His plating is warm- he runs hot, she's noticed, a feature of his size she assumes- and he obligingly loosens the transformation seams in the area she begins working, letting her rub her sponge- and digits- into the sensitive areas within. Just to clean him up properly, of course.</p>
<p>Skywarp is just starting to debate whether it's worth it to abandon her duties twice in the same cycle to teleport out and clang Astrotrain again- when she hears a screech, and the crash of metal on metal.</p>
<p>She ex-vents a frustrated sigh and climbs up on top of Astrotrain to get a better vantage.</p>
<p>Two of her seekers are tussling (or maybe on their way to fragging, she can't tell from this angle), rolling around on the floor of the hangar in a tangle of wings and flailing limbs. A few others are starting to form a circle around them, watching and probably laying bets, but even as she looks around she sees that more seekers are simply starting to fling their cleaning supplies at one another. Solvent sprays down from pressurized hoses, sponges go flying every which way, polishing cloths are snapped against various body parts.</p>
<p>Now, Skywarp is very much aware that what she's <em>supposed</em> to do is yell at them until they stop, and then come up with a new punishment.</p>
<p>But come on, how often does something like this start up on its own?</p>
<p>She gives a whoop and jumps off Astrotrain to join the fray, lobbing her sponge at the faceplate of a grinning Nacelle and snatching up a bucket of solvent to dump onto Bitstream. She's immediately attacked in return, someone she can't see splattering her with a handful of grease across her wings, Acid Storm trying to get her with a solvent hose.</p>
<p>It's fantastic.</p>
<p>And it's over much too quickly, like all good things. Skywarp isn't one of the <em>last</em> to notice the new and silent presence in the hangar, but she's not quick enough to make herself seem innocent, either.</p>
<p>"Megatron, sir," she says, acutely aware of the fact that the entire hangar, and every seeker in it, are covered in a lot of wasted cleaning supplies. Not to mention the ones who were actually just outright fighting. There's a soapy sponge lodged in one of her shoulder-vents, bubbling away with every rush of air out of her frame, but she doesn't dare remove it for fear of drawing attention.</p>
<p>If Megatron's gaze could deactivate on its own, he would not have an air force anymore. His optics find her and fixes there as she fights not to flinch. Her processor panics, churning out half-forged excuses that don't even make any sense, but she somehow manages not to actually vocalize any of them.</p>
<p>"Control your seekers," Megatron growls out at last, "Or I'll have your wings."</p>
<p>It's not an idle threat. There was one time with Starscream- well, suffice it to say, she knows he's not bluffing.</p>
<p>"Of course, Lord Megatron," Skywarp says. She turns from him and starts snapping orders at the seekers still fear-struck until they start moving, hoses shutting off and cleaning supplies getting picked up from where they fell as spent ammunition.</p>
<p>When she has a moment to remember Astrotrain, she only finds his conspicuous absence. Whether he left during the solvent-fight or only after watching Megatron reprimand her, though, she has no idea.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Three cycles later, the unexpected happens: Autobots spotted on <em>their</em> side of the Line.</p>
<p>Skywarp grins with feral excitement when she gets the comm alert, because she hasn't seen battle since the Quintessons were defeated, and it's been even longer since she had a chance to kick Autobutt.</p>
<p>She and Ramjet are the first in the air, to see a rotary flier she doesn't recognize dangling a limp frame and- is that a flying car? Ugh, Autobots. No respect for true flight-frames. Ramjet takes down the car (say what you will, but those coneheads are good for one thing) while she fires on the rotor, holding them at bay until Megatron arrives.</p>
<p>Once transformed to root mode she recognizes Bumblebee, of course- little yellow twerp just doesn't know when to quit- and identifies the limp, presumably stasis-locked frame as Windblade, who <em>could</em> have joined the winning side and been among seekers who understand what it's like to be a flier. That rejection still stings, even after all these cycles.</p>
<p>Skywarp lands just as Megatron pulls up, fusion cannon blazing, obviously as eager for some violence as his troops. Ramjet gets thrown over by Bumblebee, which she takes an image capture of to torment him about later, because <em>really</em>?</p>
<p>During the final Quintesson battle she hadn't been given the privilege of receiving the power-boost from Megatron's Matrix of Leadership. But with a single command he unleashes it now, a surge of crackling energy flowing through her and the other Decepticons gathered to take down these trespassers.</p>
<p>And oh, Primus, it's <em>good</em>.</p>
<p>She feels invincible, like she's overcharged, pure energy surging through her systems, lighting up her weapons circuitry. But unlike after indulging in high-grade her processor isn't having any trouble keeping up, tactical computer and targeting systems sharp and focused.</p>
<p>Her null rays are showing 217% max power, which is absurd- max power is already enough to blow a bot's helm clean off, twice that will probably just disintegrate their frame entirely- and it's all Skywarp can do to keep a vicious grin off her faceplate as she takes aim and waits for the order to shoot.</p>
<p>Except then the Autobots show up, Optimus Prime and Megatron size each other up a little, and that's it.</p>
<p>The power-up fizzles away unused, the Autobot trespassers are sent back over the wall, and Skywarp is stuck with a frame that's running hot without any available outlet.</p>
<p>Megatron yells at them for their lapse in allowing the Autobots to sneak in, but thankfully there's a very clear mecha to blame- Lockdown, who <em>saw Bumblebee fly over</em> while on guard duty, and then <em>didn't report it</em>. She genuinely cannot understand what was going through his processor.</p>
<p>Once dismissed, Skywarp flips into her alt-mode to take to the skies again and opens a comm-link to Astrotrain, because she if she can't crush Autobots in battle then her next best choice is a good hard clang. ::You on duty?::</p>
<p>The answer returns quickly. ::Yes::</p>
<p>::But you can sneak away for a bit?:: She shouldn't encourage him to abandon whatever duties he's been assigned, but the lure of getting spiked so hard she totally zeroes out her capacitors is too much to resist.</p>
<p>Astrotrain takes a little while longer to reply this time, and sounds reluctant when he does so. ::No::</p>
<p>Skywarp launches herself into a barrel roll of pure frustration. ::Not even if I tell you how revved up I am?::</p>
<p>::I can't. Lord Megatron gave me orders:: At least he sounds genuinely unhappy about the situation, and not like he's just blowing her off.</p>
<p>She doesn't even click back an impersonal acknowledgement, just cuts the comm-link; she might understand about orders coming first, but that doesn't mean she has to be <em>nice</em> about her disappointment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>For some reason Skywarp's processor glitches, because when she runs into Motormaster she actually thinks that <em>he</em> is going to be a suitable replacement for 'facing Astrotrain. Sure, he's got some decent size on his frame, but- ugh. What a waste of good charge.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Her sour mood is rescued by a long message from Thundercracker, even if he doesn't have much of anything to say. Still enjoying himself on planet Dirt, still trying to convince her that the organic life there is somehow sapient. He's included another sample of their so-called writing, ew.</p>
<p>But regardless, it's good to hear from him. With the distance too far for trine-bond communication, they have to bounce messages across the scattered relays in space like everyone else, and those are usually clogged up with more important things related to waging a war. It keeps them limited to glyph-only messages, maybe the occasional image, in order to sneak the smaller file size through.</p>
<p>Since the cease-fire though, there's less need for ultra-compressed messages. They still can't send video or audio without going through a huge hassle justifying <em>why</em>, but Thundercracker has included several image captures from his optics, showing off the weird things he's found on the mudball. There's also a surprisingly nice view of a glowing red-orange sunset with contrails arching across the sky that makes her long for the cycles before Vos had fallen, something it's hard to imagine he actually found on Dirt.</p>
<p>And a final image taken by some other device, the resolution sub-par and without even the barest of contextualizing data. But it shows Thundercracker, nearly his entire frame, faceplate grinning and optics bright. There's some sort of organic <em>thing</em> in his hands, like a mutated turbo-hound shrunk way down, and he's holding it close to his chassis like it's precious to him.</p>
<p>He looks good. Happy. The scars of the conflict, of Starscream nearly offlining him, are faded under glossy new paint.</p>
<p>She's glad, suddenly, that he's on planet Dirt. That he didn't have to face the Quintessons, that he doesn't have the sick longing in the back of his processor to return to the all-consuming tranquility of the dumb parade sim they were trapped in for countless cycles. That he doesn't know what's happened to their trine leader, doesn't have to watch Megatron with growing unease at how that Matrix of Leadership is sitting inside his chest, doesn't have to watch the Autobots infest their ancestral city.</p>
<p>Skywarp sends a pulse through the trine bond, affection and a longing for times long since past when they were young and whole, the entire universe theirs for the taking.</p>
<p>There's only a faint echo in return, the comforting but too-far-away ping of ⁂<em>Thundercracker</em>⁂</p>
<p> </p>
<p>::You free?:: Astrotrain comms her a few cycles later. It's the middle of the solar cycle but honestly, she's more than ready to skive off her responsibilities for the day.</p>
<p>::I could be:: she replies. It's still a bit strange to realize that being (Acting) Air Commander gives her <em>more</em> free time than she ever had before, despite technically being more responsibility. No wonder Screamer always had so much time to come up with elaborate plots to overthrow Megatron.</p>
<p>Astrotrain clicks back with a set of coordinates and a small data packet, a burst of sensory information that helps her- well, not <em>visualize</em> it as such, but she can tell it's a wide-open area, outdoors by the feel of it. Her one trip through his horrible portals had made her forget that Astrotrain is also a teleporter, someone who <em>gets</em> how disorienting it can be to travel without knowing where you're going.</p>
<p>Her destination is an empty plain, metal filings and rough-tumbled mineral grit blowing in the breeze. Skywarp, of course, flies well above it.</p>
<p>It doesn't take long to spot Astrotrain, a giant purple and silver- hey, she realizes all of a sudden, they almost <em>match</em>!- lump in his train mode, shiny against the rusty background of what she's pretty sure used to be the Quintex Flats.</p>
<p>Rather than announce her presence Skywarp throws herself into a steep dive, nosecone pointed straight at the glass of his cabin. She's never lost a game of cyber-chicken and she doesn't intend to now.</p>
<p>Astrotrain, predictably, flinches first- but less predictably he doesn't just get out of the way, he transforms himself with speed she honestly hadn't expected him to possess, considering his size, and next thing she knows she's been plucked out of the air by his massive hands. She kicks up her thrusters, but the increase in power doesn't do anything against his grip.</p>
<p>"Hi," he says, sounding amused.</p>
<p>Skywarp cycles out a huff of exhaust and transforms into her root mode, which leaves her not so much grabbed as just cradled in his palms. "I would have warped before I smashed into you," she points out.</p>
<p>Astrotrain shrugs one giant shoulder. "Didn't warp before I caught you."</p>
<p>She's momentarily speechless, unsure if she wants to defend her pride (as <em>if</em> he got her off guard!) or laugh and play along teasingly. Eh, she already knows he's pretty much a sure thing. "That's because I let you," she tells him, looking down her olfactory at him, despite the fact that his optics are still at least a mechanometer above the level of her helm.</p>
<p>"Sure," he says, clearly not believing her at all, which is just deeply insulting. She's insulted.</p>
<p>"And anyway, you're getting me dirty," Skywarp says. Since he's no longer really holding her she hops out of his hands, igniting her thrusters just enough to soften her descent.</p>
<p>"I could get you dirtier," he offers.</p>
<p>She snorts, remembering their last encounter and just how dirty she'd gotten. "Don't I know it."</p>
<p>Astrotrain looks somewhat proud of himself, and she can't help the snickers that break free of her vocalizer. There really had been just <em>epic</em> amounts of transfluid. "Come on," he says, and gestures a wide swathe with one of his hands, "Let's get out of the open."</p>
<p>She doesn't have anything against fragging under the open sky, but she knows a segue when she hears one.</p>
<p>She expects to be led to another ruin, or a shed he's thrown together as a little hideaway. But instead Skywarp finds herself standing at the mouth of a newly-constructed building, the entrance mostly hidden in the upheaved slabs of raw metal the landscape provides.</p>
<p>It looks like some kind of workshop, but it's still only half-finished, bundles of wires leading to hook-ups that aren't in place yet, struts waiting for wall panels to be riveted on. There's a massive computer bank and she realizes, as the equally massive door slides closed behind her, that it's not so much 'big' as it is built to Astrotrain's scale for a change.</p>
<p>"Um, this place is classified," he says, looking around like he's just now realized maybe this wasn't his best call.</p>
<p>"I have higher clearance than you," she says dismissively. There's not much of anything to see, anyway; she's gotten lots of practice at figuring out when something is useless junk and when it's a potentially-deadly weapon in the early stages- hazard of sharing living space with Screamer for so long- and this stuff mostly just looks like construction debris to her.</p>
<p>Astrotrain looks like he wants to disagree, but whatever. She didn't come here to argue about whether she's allowed to know whatever secret project he's been assigned.</p>
<p>There's what looks like a pair of med slabs, rudimentary but sturdy, and Skywarp hops up to stand on one of them. Hmm, tie-down points for restraints, but no restraints built-in. Kind of a shame.</p>
<p>She looks up coyly at Astrotrain, wings swaying to catch the light pouring in from the large skylight above. "Well?" she says, "You going to stay up there?"</p>
<p>He obligingly lowers himself, only instead of just leaning down the way she mostly expects, he mass-shifts along the way until he's the shortest she's ever seen him. Which, granted, is still huge- he must be a head or two taller than Megatron, probably twice her own height- but huge relative to her own size class. With her standing up on the med slab, their optics are entirely on the same level for the first time.</p>
<p>"That's as far as I go," Astrotrain says, the deep rumble of his voice undiminished.</p>
<p>"You're perfect," she assures him, processor racing with all the things she can do to him at this scale. She's relatively confident that she can <em>finally</em> fit his spike into her intake, and she's always loved having something to occupy her mouth, but... "Can I spike you?"</p>
<p>He nods easily. "If you want," he says, not entirely enthusiastically, and Skywarp resolves then and there to blow his processor with how good her spiking skills are. His valve isn't going to know what's hit it.</p>
<p>First, though, she grabs at his collar faring and leans in for a kiss. It's rather easier this time than the last, though she hadn't entirely minded the feel of his much larger glossa peeking out between plush lips. Now though their frames are a compatible size and so kissing him is effortless, exactly the sort of thing she delights in to tease up some good charge.</p>
<p>She's already revving up, interface protocols coming online as anticipation alone sends shivers through her struts.</p>
<p>"You like that," Astrotrain says when she slides her mouth over to nibble at the cables and cording of his neck juncture, barely peeking out between sections of metal mesh. He sounds less like it's an attempt at dirty talk, and more an actual observation, but without any judgement behind it.</p>
<p>"Mm," she hums in reply, and swipes her glossa over the vents besides his faceplate. Ew, dusty- just how long was he outside on the ground? "Best way to shut me up, Thundercracker always says."</p>
<p>There's a pause, the hands that had just started to feel up her turbines stilling. "Thundercracker?" Astrotrain says.</p>
<p>She nods, and presses closer, heedless of the little scrapes of metal and glass. "My trinemate," she says. It occurs to her that Astrotrain might not be aware of trines, or really anything about seeker culture- he's half of a flight frame, sure, but he's a <em>space shuttle</em>. "It's fine," she says, eager to smooth over any potential awkwardness, "Nothing you need to worry about."</p>
<p>Skywarp doesn't give Astrotrain any chance to think it over, taking his mouth in a searing kiss at the same time as she palms over his modesty panel, already satisfyingly warm to the touch.</p>
<p>"If you get on the slab, I can lick out your valve," she says with a flash of a smile, enthusiasm betraying herself.</p>
<p>He doesn't hesitate for long at the offer, taking a seat on the med slab next to her, reclining back on his arms with his legs spread wide and inviting. Skywarp is suddenly taller than him, the sort of novelty that delights her.</p>
<p>She loses her height advantage swiftly enough, dropping to her knees between his spread thighs. The slab isn't quite so far off the ground that she could have him sit at the edge, and not still be awkwardly hunched over to some degree, so she merely mouths her way down his frame until she's lying flat on her front. Her wings rest just on the tops of his thighs, little presses of friction as she squirms, trying to get comfortable on the hard med slab.</p>
<p>"Open for me?" she murmurs, in between licking broad stripes on his modesty panels with her glossa.</p>
<p>Astrotrain's panel transforms away to reveal a surprisingly dainty valve, the few bio-lights shining enticing red against silvery metal-mesh. She lets out a happy hum and applies herself right away, pleased to taste that he's already been producing lubrication.</p>
<p>She licks around the entrance of his valve, flicking her glossa over the sensitive clusters of sensors studded there, and tries not to take it personally that he isn't very vocally appreciative. Skywarp seals her lips over his swollen anterior node and sucks, charge zinging through the connection and lighting up her own circuits.</p>
<p>He moans at that- <em>finally</em>- and palms one big hand over the back of her helm. She turns her head to kiss the exposed juncture of his thigh joint, nipping the wires and energon lines just hard enough to pinch, then soothes away the sting with her glossa again.</p>
<p>When she moves her mouth back to his valve she squirms to bring a hand into the mix as well, digits rubbing teasingly. Astrotrain puts some pressure on her helm, enough to cue her onwards without actually smashing her faceplate right into his valve, and she thinks about pulling back instead to make him desperate- but she's already getting worked up herself, and patience was never her strongest skill.</p>
<p>She slips a digit into his valve at the same time as she flutters her glossa against his anterior node, and is rewarded with him jerking in place, pedes clanging against the slab underneath them as he scrambles to get his balance.</p>
<p>Skywarp smirks against the slick mesh of his valve and slides another digit in, continuing her assault against his anterior node with her mouth while her digits rub and caress, mapping out the pattern of his internal sensors. He feels luxurious around her digits, heated and slick, calipers loosening up as she works herself in deeper.</p>
<p>"Can't wait to get you on my spike," she murmurs, only keeping her own panel closed so she can't rub off against the slab.</p>
<p>Astrotrain groans; maybe he heard her. Then his hand closes on her shoulder, and he's tugging her <em>away</em>. "Hey, stop," he says, vocalizer fritzing around the edges, "Gonna overload if you keep that up."</p>
<p>She pulls away from his valve with a lewd slurp, faceplate all sticky-slick. "Kind of the point," she says, and licks her lips pointedly.</p>
<p>He groans again, this time more of a frustrated noise. "I'd rather blow my charge when you're spiking me," he says.</p>
<p>"I bet I could make you overload twice," Skywarp says, "At <em>least</em>."</p>
<p>He chuckles, and tugs her shoulder again so that she really does have to pull away, digits slipping from his valve regretfully. "We're not all oversexed jets," he says.</p>
<p>"I'm not oversexed," she protests, but without much heat because who is she to stop him from asking for her spike? And okay, so he has only overloaded once each during their previous encounters, so maybe there's something to the old adage of larger frames building charge slower. She should ask Starscream for a survey sample, compare data.</p>
<p>Flicking her wings to dismiss the errant thought, she settles up on her knees and finally transforms away her modesty panel. Her spike extends immediately, clearing away a host of messages on her HUD as it does so.</p>
<p>Astrotrain looks down between their frames, still reclining back on his other hand, and makes an appreciative noise.</p>
<p>She rewards him for this by stretching up and kissing him, because her spike is very nicely proportioned for her frame, thanks, but even with him mass-shifted there's still a noticeable size difference between them. It's a sloppy kiss, sticky from his lubrication all over her faceplate and then her spike rubs against his plating when she tries to press in closer, causing her to get a bit distracted.</p>
<p>"Like this?" she asks when she unscrambles her processor, unsure of whether he can comfortably lie back on his wings or not.</p>
<p>"Yeah, 's fine," he says. Then his hand wraps around her spike and she in-vents a sharp gasp, barely able to stop her instinctive surge forward into the contact. He gives her a few firm strokes, then lets her spike go to grab her aft instead. "Come on."</p>
<p>It's all the invitation Skywarp needs. She lines her spike up with his waiting valve and pushes inside, moaning at the feel of plush mesh enveloping her. The angle's kind of awkward at first because he's still propped up on one arm, but when she bottoms out, he shutters his optics and tosses his helm back, and by the time she's pulled back for a real thrust, his frame has sagged down to meet the slab underneath them.</p>
<p>He's kind of too tall for the med slab, at least how they're positioned, so his helm lolls over the edge, but Astrotrain doesn't seem to mind.</p>
<p>"Move these up?" she says, and taps at one of his thighs. She could <em>probably</em> manhandle him into a better position if she needed to, but even mass-shifted he's still a heavy, sturdy mech. Happily she doesn't have to test that theory because he obligingly raises his knees to let her move closer, inguinal armor scraping as she ruts into the heated clutch of his valve.</p>
<p>Skywarp gets a firm grip on his chest plating to anchor herself and builds up a quick pace, aiming with every stroke to rub the head of her spike against the largest cluster of sensory nodes she'd mapped out with her digits before. Charge sizzles between them, leaping across the fluid bridge of lubrication and at every other point of contact, sparking off her plating in little zings that make her wings twitch.</p>
<p>His hips rock up against hers, totally out of rhythm with the pace she's setting. She tries to tell him that it's distracting, but her vocalizer is only putting out guttural moans and bursts of static, so she's not sure he gets the message.</p>
<p>Overload comes up on her fast and sharp, her circuits lighting up in a wave of ecstasy as her thrusting grows frantic, optics washing out her vision from the bio-light she's pouring out.</p>
<p>"Frag," she says, fans roaring to cool off her heated frame. "Just, just gimme an astro'."</p>
<p>Astrotrain lifts his head up from the edge of the slab, faceplate pulling into a frown.</p>
<p>Her spike is already growing over-sensitive, a request for it to retract pinging obnoxiously across her HUD. But she ignores that and dives into her encrypted storage files, easily locating the patch she wants. The coding executes in less than an astrocycle, and suddenly it's like- well, it's actually not that great on her end for this bit. The program makes it feel like she's put a thick silicone sleeve over her sensitive spike, so the sensation is dulled but not really altered beyond that.</p>
<p>But it also means her interfacing protocols stop trying to shut down, her spike still fully extended and ready to keep going.</p>
<p>And keep going she does, readjusting her stance and then thrusting away again. It's even easier now, her transfluid adding to the lubrication her spike is gliding through, that particular looseness to her spinal strut she only gets after a good overload allowing her to really <em>snap</em> her hips against Astrotrain's.</p>
<p>"Oversexed," he mutters, barely audible, but it doesn't sound like a complaint.</p>
<p>Skywarp grins at him and takes one hand away from caressing the transformation seams along  his abdomen to instead slip down to where her spike's disappearing inside him. He in-vents, sharp, and his helm drops back over the side of the table with a low moan.</p>
<p>Taking that as a good sign, she rubs her digits all along the rim of his valve where she's stretching him open, glad that the patch is temporarily dulling the sensation for her. His anterior node is swollen and plush when she circles around it, and she doesn't want to pull away from his frame enough to see but she bets it's pulsating bright and vivid, needy.</p>
<p>The patch is quick to begin wearing off, normal sensitivity returning to her spike as if she took the break her interfacing protocols had urged. It means she can feel it all the more vividly when Astrotrain's calipers start squeezing in concert, unmistakably deliberate.</p>
<p>He hitches a leg up, not quite able to wrap over her hips but caging her chassis in close all the same, hands grabbing for whatever part of her he can reach.</p>
<p>Skywarp puts more weight into her thrusts, sheer speed giving way to force and depth, pleased when he starts vocalizing bursts of inarticulate noise. It probably won't be much longer for him, not if the amount of static crackling off his plating is any indication of his capacitor level, which is for the best because she's already got her next overload in her sights.</p>
<p>Her rhythm wavers, but Astrotrain doesn't seem to care, still moving his own hips regardless of the pace she's setting. She begins rubbing his node firmly, no longer any light teasing build-up, and ducks her helm down so she can lick along a sensitive transformation seam. Thankfully, said seams are no longer large enough for her glossa to encounter active charge, so she avoids shocking herself this time around.</p>
<p>Under her his frame heaves, bio-lights blinking in random disarray. She can feel his overload secondhand, a wash of heat and electricity crackling off his plating, his valve pulsating wildly around her spike.</p>
<p>It sends her over the edge as well, vocalizer glitching a static-filled moan as she overloads a second time, making a real mess of his valve once again as she pumps out more transfluid.</p>
<p>Astrotrain lets out a low groan as his frame relaxes back down to the slab, one hand clumsily patting at her back like it's a job well done.</p>
<p>The problem is that she forgot to disable the patch, so while she <em>should</em> be pulling out and shutting down her interface protocols, all Skywarp wants to do is keep moving, her charge levels not depleted and spike still ready to go. She bites her lip and holds still, stuck in indecision about her options.</p>
<p>He lifts his head again, optics hazy and pleased, and there's no way he hasn't noticed her spike still buried in his valve. Indeed, the only thing he says is, "Still?"</p>
<p>Her wings swing low in embarrassment, and she nods.</p>
<p>Astrotrain huffs, sounding amused. "Lotta charge for a little seeker."</p>
<p>"I'm not little!" she protests, and twitches her hips pointedly to remind him of exactly how not-little she is, which is a mistake because that bit of movement burns up her circuits with the urge to keep going. "Can I just." He doesn't answer and she resets her vocalizer to cut off a whine. "Can I finish?"</p>
<p>He shrugs a shoulder, and reaches up to the top of the slab, pillowing his helm on his arm so he can watch her. "Sure," he says, which is not exactly a ringing endorsement but Skywarp doesn't really care at the moment.</p>
<p>She ex-vents in relief and shifts her grip to his hips, glad to be able to move again. Her spike throbs, oversensitive even with the patch doing its job, but the friction of his fragged-out valve is soothing to her sensornet.</p>
<p>It's not really something she's into, having a partner who just kind of lays there, but when she tries to reach for his node, wondering if maybe she <em>can</em> scrounge up some more charge for him, Astrotrain winces at the touch. And that's even worse, so she just focuses on overloading as quickly as she can. After making sure the patch is deactivated again, of course.</p>
<p>It's not an overload to write home about, not the kind that's really fun and fulfilling, but it takes care of her charge just the same. Her frame is relaxed, joints loose, and she's kind of feeling guilty about fragging him when he was already done but mostly she's feeling worn-out and like a quick recharge wouldn't be a bad idea.</p>
<p>Skywarp plans to pull away from him, maybe roll off the med slab entirely since he doesn't leave much room on it anyway, but she can't bring herself to move just yet, and stays draped over the front of his frame where she collapsed. It is also, she admits very guiltily in the back of her processor, kind of nice to just lay with another mecha. Normally she'd get any- ugh, just the word makes her want to roll her optics- any <em>cuddling</em> she wanted from her trine, but.</p>
<p>One of Astrotrain's hands comes up to rest against her back, mindful of her wings, and she figures that means he isn't kicking her off just yet.</p>
<p>Still, she's torn between feeling relaxed and feeling embarrassed, a push-pull of tension that keeps her bolted to the spot. Said spot being Astrotrain's chassis, helm laying dangerously close to where his plating would slide open to expose his spark. Not that he'll be doing that, of course.</p>
<p>"I have a program you might like," Skywarp blurts out, unable to handle the silence. "It helps with, um, sensitivity."</p>
<p>One of his digits rubs just against the hinge of a wing, and she shudders. "I'm fine," he says.</p>
<p>"I mean, after overloading," she clarifies. "Like, you can go again sooner."</p>
<p>There's a longer pause. "Were you using it just now?" he asks, and sounds what she's going to optimistically call amused.</p>
<p>"Yeah," she says, and shrugs like that'll ward off any comments he might make. She doesn't care about 'cheating' with stuff like this; it's not like she's totally overhauling her system, just tweaking things a little. But other mecha sometimes have stronger opinions.</p>
<p>He only hums, a deep rumbling from down in his engines more than his vocalizer. Funny, how even mass-shifted to practically standard size she can still tell how powerful he really is. (What's not really as funny is how much she's starting to think she <em>likes</em> those reminders)</p>
<p>"I'll think about it," Astrotrain says.</p>
<p>And now she should really get up, clean off the worst of the mess and head back to base. Technically she's on duty still, but all she had left to do was paperwork so really, no one can blame her for ditching to clang instead. She knows for a solid <em>fact</em> that Starscream never did more than a quarter of the paperwork he was supposed to, and <em>he</em> somehow managed to be Air Commander for a couple million cycles.</p>
<p>She cuts off that line of thought before she can follow it far enough to bring down her mood.</p>
<p>Instead she focuses on how nice it is to lie here, against Astrotrain's warm plating, feeling relaxed and fragged-out. It's nearly peaceful.</p>
<p>Hm, Skywarp thinks drowsily, maybe she'll get him to fly her back so she can continue feeling limp and lazy a while longer. He carried her that first time, after all.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She doesn't realize she's fallen into recharge until she bolts awake, weapons system onlining before her optics have even focused. The half-built room around her is still and dark, totally empty, and she lowers her null rays.</p>
<p>Astrotrain is nowhere to be seen, probably long gone to judge by how much later in the solar cycle it is. She checks her chrono for the exact time and winces.</p>
<p>It's kind of a surprise to realize that he just left her on the med slab, and didn't glue her to the ceiling or something. Skywarp is a bit embarrassed that she was recharging deeply enough to not notice him maneuvering out from under her frame, but there's not much she can do about that now.</p>
<p>She pulls a cleaning rag from her subspace and wipes off quickly, transfluid and lubrication dried and flaky against her plating. Less of a mess than last time, that's for sure.</p>
<p>It's a nice enough night that she takes the long way back, flying under the starry sky and enjoying the cool air on her wings. There's some missed comms in her message queue and she spends more of the flight than she'd really like answering them, including- <em>ugh</em>- Hook's message reminding her that he does have the specs for her warp drive now, and she needs to see him for an inspection or he'll report her to Megatron.</p>
<p>All in all, nothing really important. The base is quiet this late at night when she lands, almost no one skulking around but the bare few mecha on nightwatch.</p>
<p>And then Shadow Striker slams into her, Skywarp yelping in surprise, caught entirely off guard.</p>
<p>"What the <em>slag</em> do you think you're doing?" Shadow Striker demands, electro-knife to her throat.</p>
<p>Skywarp aims her null rays- ow, slag, just one null ray, the other yanked to the side (along with her entire arm) by Shadow Striker's free hand- but doesn't fire. "Um, going to my quarters?" she says, trying to think if she's done anything to Shadow Striker recently.</p>
<p>"Only place you're going is the brig, traitor," Shadow Striker says with a sneer.</p>
<p>Skywarp has no idea what she's talking about, but that's a big enough accusation that she goes ahead and fires her null ray. Shadow Striker dodges, but doing so knocks the electro-knife away from Skywarp's throat, allowing her to physically push away from the hold on her.</p>
<p>"What gives?" Skywarp shouts as Shadow Striker lunges again, because she <em>knows</em> Shadow Striker's been a literal glitch since Shockwave cobbled her back together, but she's never totally scrambled her processor before.</p>
<p>Shadow Striker yells something about Autobots and betrayal that doesn't really make sense, and manages to cut a fragging slice out of Skywarp's side with her knife. Skywarp yells in pain and teleports away because enough is enough, it is <em>not</em> her job to deal with glitching assassins.</p>
<p>Well, other than Starscream. But that doesn't count.</p>
<p>She rematerializes in the main area of the repair bay, because as much as she doesn't want to give Hook the satisfaction of poking around her warp drive, she also has a painful new gash in her side steadily leaking energon that should be patched up. And besides, a medic is as good as any other mecha to alert about Shadow Striker's glitching.</p>
<p>It's quiet this time of night, now that they're not actively at war anymore.</p>
<p>"You're leaking on my floor," that Velocitron medic says, sneer visible in his voice. Skywarp turns to face him, and his optics flick quickly over her frame before adding, "And you seem to have become an Autobot, Commander."</p>
<p>"Huh?" she replies.</p>
<p>The medic- Knockout, she suddenly remembers his designation- points a thin digit at her wings, faceplate smirking. "Red's not really your color."</p>
<p>Skywarp twists her helm to get her wings in her line of vision, and there indeed is a glaring red Autobot symbol, painted right over her Decepticon insignia. She recoils, disgusted. "I didn't put that there," she says, flicking her wings like she can shake the paint off. It's on her other wing as well, the lines a little wobbly as if they were done with an unsteady hand.</p>
<p>Shadow Striker's attack does make more sense, at least. She's not really the type to ask questions first.</p>
<p>It doesn't take much thought to realize that Astrotrain is to blame for this. Skywarp (stupidly) fell into recharge right there, literally on top of him, and apparently was out deeply enough for him to physically move her. Adding a bit of paint would have been easy at that point, even on as sensitive a location as her wings.</p>
<p>She scowls and wonders what she can come up with to repay the favor.</p>
<p>"You're still leaking," Knockout says, though he makes no move to actually do anything about it. "Or should I send you over to your <em>new friends</em>?"</p>
<p>"Ha, ha," Skywarp says, feeling off-kilter just <em>thinking</em> about having the Autobot symbol on herself. It's gross, as if she traded in her wings for a set of wheels. "How quickly can you patch me up?" she asks, the beginnings of a plan forming in her processor. Astrotrain isn't going to know what hit him.</p>
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